21.1.14

Air Pegasus

Air Pegasus, floated by one of the largest domestic airport ground handling companies, will take to the skies in March, linking the southern cities with ATR turboprop aircraft.
The low-cost carrier — keeping Bangalore as the hub — will fly 25 sectors daily with three 72-seater ATR aircraft initially, before ramping up the fleet to six aircraft by the year-end.
“We hope to offer fares Rs 750-1,000 cheaper than rivals in sectors that we fly,” Air Pegasus chairman & MD Shyson Thomas said. His Decor Aviation Private, which handles airport services for domestic and international carriers across southern airports, will pump in $15 million and Canara Bank is extending a $5-million loan to the airline.
Pegasus, which is expected to launch commercial advertising in early February, is hitting the domestic skies that remain challenging for carriers. A recent report by Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation said Indian airlines lost $24 on every passenger it carried last year, and four out of the five national carriers continue to report losses.
Among the new airlines waiting to fly are AirAsia’s joint venture with the Tatas to operate a budget carrier, and Singapore Airlines also joining hands with the group to launch a full-service airline. Meanwhile, Air Costa, which received a licence along with Air Pegasus, started operations with an Embraer fleet on national routes.
“We will reduce costs by outsourcing entire airport handling to the parent Decor Aviation. ATR turboprop is also very fuel efficient for short-haul regional flights, which is our business model,” Thomas added. Air Pegasus will initially connect Bangalore with Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hubli, Mangalore, Goa, Tirupati and Vizag.
“We will focus only on the south in the first year, but have plans to create similar hubs around Ahmedabad (for west) and Kolkata (for east) going forward. We would also move into north with a hub in Delhi ultimately,” Thomas, a certified chartered accountant, said. His Decor Aviation started off 15 years ago with aircraft cleaning assignments from Air India before emerging as a full-fledged ground handling services company employing 1,200 people now.
Air Pegasus will depend mostly on an ATR fleet, rather than progressively migrate to wide bodied-aircraft. “If the 5/ 20 rule goes and we are allowed to fly overseas, then we would look at operating in sectors like Thiruvananthapuram-Mali and Kolkata-Dhaka in the future,” Thomas added. 

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